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Yet
the beleaguered port soldiers on. The Lazaro
Cardenas Container Terminal (LCT), operated
by Hutchison, has completed its second phase
at a cost of US$225 million following the
arrival of two new super postpanamax cranes
and five additional RTGs and is considered
the largest and best port in Mexico.
Although
APM Terminals signed a 32-year concession
in 2012 for a spot in Lazaro Cardenas, the
first 300 metres of quay is only expected
to be ready in the first quarter of this
year, with container handling equipment
coming in later. The completed terminal,
which will add 1.2 million TEU annual capacity,
is to become operational in the first half
2016.
"We're
expecting Lazaro to grow," said Kansas
City Southern CEO Patrick Ottensmeyer. "There
seems to be a lot of jockeying back and
forth between Manzanillo and Lazaro and
price for market share and ocean carriers
making changes to their rotation line-up
on an interim basis. So it's going to be
a little bit choppier for the next year-and-a-half.
"
Rival
Manzanillo, with 13 metres alongside, is
still Mexico's the biggest box port having
moved 2.1 million TEU in 2013. Local port
operator SSA Mexico operates a 25.9-hectare
TECI container terminal with 1,076 metres
(three lengths of 530 feet) of quays with
four berths serving calls from APL, Hamburg
Sud, Hapag-Lloyd, MOL, MSC, NYK Line, "K"
Line and CCNI.
Also
active in Manzanillo, is Manila global port
operator International Container Terminal
Services (ICTSI), whose Mexican unit has
started construction on a $250 million container
terminal. The company had secured a 34-year
concession contract worth $771 million in
2009 to develop and operate the second terminal
there.
Construction
of the terminal was estimated to cost MXN10
billion (US$751 million), which will be
jointly funded by the Mexican government
and ICTSI. The terminal was to have 74 hectares
and 5.4 hectares of maritime surface, as
well as three docks and a 1.08 kilometre
waterfront and be equipped with four Kalmar
superpostpanamax cranes and 10 RTGs.
Even
with Manzanillo's brisk trade with Mexico
City, once the largest city in the world,
it was Lazaro Cardenas that was favoured
to provide the economies of scale when combined
with diverted cargo from LA-Long Beach would
surpass the volumes generated by the larger
Manzanillo - or so many thought at the time.
But
then the 2009 global financial downturn
came, shrinking growth worldwide and there
was no LA-Long Beach congestion crisis to
make Lazaro Cardenas all it could be. Indeed
the whole idea has been yesterday's news
for years. Talk soon became focussed on
cargo being siphoned off from US west coast
ports by US east coast ports. Ports like
Savannah and Charleston whose cries of "Panama"
and "keep it on the water" were
beginning to resonate with shippers fed
up with costly overland transits to their
eastern retail shelves.
All
the while being dazzled the prospect of
an expanded Panama that would more than
double its capacity, by its centenary in
2014, since delayed to 2016 by construction
cost overrun disputes, lockouts and strikes.
Meanwhile,
ships got bigger and bigger which even made
the new expanded Panama craze old hat. Then
the talk turned to North American-bound
Asian cargo coming through Suez on mega
ships, whose loads were mostly destined
for north Europe. But en passant, would
drop off substantial transshipments at Red
Sea and Med ports from Jeddah and Suez to
Tangiers and Algeciras in a new process
known as "wayporting".
These
consignments would be picked up by smaller
ships, 3,500-TEUers to reach Montreal on
the St Lawrence River or 6.000-TEUers to
enter Savannah and ports in between.
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